Bridgeton drops CAL schedule

Sep. 18, 2013

The Bridgeton High School girls’ soccer team is a notable exception from the schedules of Cape-Atlantic League American Conference teams this fall.

The Bulldogs, after spending last year in the larger, more competitive conference, are playing an independent slate this season.

Athletic director Cyndy Wilks petitioned the league to let the program compete independent from the CAL for one year and was granted permission in August. She then had to rush to fill the dates vacated by the likes of Vineland, Millville and others.

“In August, it’s really hard to find 18 games, so I was struggling,” Wilks, a star soccer player herself during her time at Bridgeton, said.

The resulting schedule includes dates with Lindenwold, Woodbury and Camden County Tech. The Bulldogs beat Camden County Tech, 2-1, on Tuesday for their first win of the season. Standout senior defender Symone Sweazie scored on a penalty kick for her second career goal

“It was really good experience,” Wilks said.

The reason behind the switch is certainly wins and losses, but it goes deeper than that. Even with around 30 girls on the team, a good number for the Bulldogs, the overall lack of experience makes everything difficult. Even pregame warmups, something members of other teams master at 7 or 8 years old, are something completely new, and lack effectiveness when a player is struggling to just remember the routine rather than actually getting lose for the game.

“It’s a safety concern for our team and for our opponents,” Wilks said. “We’re basic-skilled players, and I don’t want to see them injure opponents because they can’t keep up with the style of play.

“It’s also to keep the morale of the program up.”

In the five previous seasons, Bridgeton had eight wins. The best win total in that time was three, which they had in 2009 and 2011.

First-year coach Bill Ziefle is focused completely on building for the future. He has committed to playing as much of his roster as possible in every game and wanted to see a junior varsity team added, at least for a few games, as early as next year. Keeping numbers up will be key, and that’s tied closely with morale.

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“That’s where we’re at right now, trying to build a program,” Ziefle said. “And no one has quit.”

This is the year

The preparation for this season started many years ago for a few Delsea players. A half dozen players realized when they were younger they were a special group, and the wins would come if they stayed together — even at the high school level.

They were eying their junior years though, when they finally wouldn’t be playing against girls up to three years older.

That year is now for the Crusaders’ Tori Miller, Kailey Russo, Laura Hunter, Dasia Busch, Haley Parks and Rachel Geissler.

“We talked about our junior and senior years since the first day of preseason,” Miller said. “That has been our goal since we stepped on the field, first day of practice freshman year.”

While the players certainly don’t lack in talent, the biggest thing that makes the group so special is the chemistry.

“We’ve been a club team ever since we were little, we all came up together, we’ve all been there for each other since we were little,” Miller said.

But after years of winning on the club level, the high school game presented new challenges, especially these final two years.

“It does give us nerves, but it’s not much pressure,” Miller said. “I think it’s more good nerves.”

Making up for lost time

In just two games this year, Millville’s Hannah Daigle has proven she has no rust from missing all of her sophomore season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Daigle has four goals in the two Thunderbolt wins, including a hat trick in the season opener against Absegami.

Sophomore Mallory Chamberlain has also scored in both games.

Rare feeling

The historic unbeaten streak Cumberland Christian rode into this season was finally snapped on Tuesday. The Crusaders fell 1-0 to Kings Christian, ending a 21-game stretch without a loss.

It was the first unbeaten streak in school history to stretch into the 20-game range.

“I’m so proud, obviously,” coach Christine Bennett said. “They worked really hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them. Twenty-one games is something a lot of teams can’t say they’ve done.”

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Not that defending its Tri-State Christian Athletic Conference title wasn’t already the top priority, but now that’s the only worry on the minds of the players.

“I told them they needed to keep their heads up and again how proud I was of them for the streak they had,” Bennett said. “It’s early in the season and we’ll learn from this game and more forward.

“You don’t have to be undefeated to win the championship.”

Patrick's Top 5*

1. Millille (2-0): Next up is a potentially epic battle against Vineland.

2. Vineland (1-0-1): If the team stays healthy, this will be a special season for the Fighting Clan.

3. Delsea (1-2): Tough early going for the Crusaders, who should be a force by the end of the year.

4. OLMA (1-1): Villagers could be in for a bit of an up-and-down season based on the early going.

5. Schalick (2-2): Young team capable of winning every time it steps on the field.

*Records are through Tuesday’s reported results.

Area leaders

We will debut the top scorers and goalkeepers in the area next week. Coaches are strongly encouraged to email scoring leaders and keeper shutouts to pbuganski@thedailyjournal.com no later than Tuesday night to have their players included in the list.

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